Friday, June 10, 2011

I lost on Blago's elections, but at least I was right

^In 2002, I lobbied hard for Illinois Democrats to choose Paul Vallas as their gubernatorial candidate. He had done a great job as superintendent of Chicago schools and wasn't a sleazebag, as his opponent, Rod Blagojevich was. Unfortunately, the downstaters inexplicably went with Blago, he scored a narrow primary victory and he went on to be elected governor.

A moderate who makes decisions based on candidates, policies and platforms -- not parties -- I then voted for Republican Jim Ryan, the eventual loser.

Four years -- and several Blago scandals and scams later -- I voted for Republican Judy Baar Topinka even though there was little evidence the state treasurer would be a good governor. I simply couldn't vote for Blago. Alas, Blago outspent Topinka 4-to-1 and won an 11 percent victory.

The rest is history. As I write this, a jury is trying to decide if it should convict Blago on multiple corruption charges. He was a terrible governor and an embarrassment to the state -- albeit a godsend to standup comedians.

Looking back, I consider my decisions regarding his gubernatorial elections to be my best as a voter.^

3 comments:

Now they should just name Madigan Emperor of Illinois and be done with the rest of the sham that they call democracy here. Be glad you're not a resident of the 3 County Quinn state. It's ony gotten worse. But at least this time, all the politico's aren't hiding it anymore and just doing what they please in the open.

And now I am in a health care mess. My new option is now frozen pending additional court action, and my old provider stops June 30 and according to court order cannot be extended. This was all exactly what the employee and retirement citizenry expected, but our government leaders don't seem to be able to think ahead to avoid such things.